July 30, 2012

Having been involved in the Learning & Development (L&D) profession for over two decades I have witnessed many “hot” management trends, read countless books on management theory, and seen more and more attention drawn towards the need for managers to become leaders within their organizations. However, over the years, certain elements of management remain constant. One being their involvement in the L&D function.

Employees want to know the organization they represent invests in them personally through a formal, structured training and development program. The most valuable asset any organization has is its people. An organization that does not invest in the development of its employees sends a clear message that says “I don’t care about you.” Employees lack motivation to do their jobs effectively when they are not cared for and developed. Yet, how many managers in today’s world become “involved” and see L&D as a function of HR i.e. "it’s not my job"?

I have delivered dozens of speeches in my 20-year career, and still develop tingles of anticipation when I present to a group of individuals who are clearly hungry for knowledge and innovative ideas in 21st century business and personal growth. The 2012 Skillsoft Perspectives Australia Conference is no exception.

As CEO of Emotional Intelligence Worldwide, I am fortunate to get to know many dynamic leaders who have the vision to want more in their personal and professional growth and development.

My area of expertise is the practical application of emotional intelligence, positive psychology and the neuroscience of what goes on in the human brain. What I hope to deliver at Perspectives Australia are Ideas! I hope to give participants food for thought they can go away with, meditate on and start to put in practice.

Emotional Intelligence is an essential foundation to everything we do – decision-making, creativity, relationships and leadership. The more people learn, the more we can get the best out of ourselves, our teams and our organisations.

July 24, 2012

Conversations in Leadership is a Skillsoft webinar series featuring business experts and best-selling authors from Skillsoft’s Leadership Development Channel and 50 Lessons collections. The August webinar will feature Daniel Forrester discussing his book Consider.

Get insight from today’s leadersShawn Hunter, Executive Producer of Skillsoft’s Leadership Development Channel™, hosts Q&A sessions with innovative thought-leaders and best-selling authors to discuss the latest insights from the world of business. We’re excited to offer this content free of charge to the general public – you don’t have to subscribe to the Leadership Development Channel or 50 Lessons to access this information! You’ll hear directly from top business leaders and authors – a great way to improve managerial and leadership skills.

Join us for a complimentary webinar on August 8 Please join us August 8 at 12:00 pm EDT for a conversation with Daniel Forrester focused on the topics covered in his book, Consider.

As Skillsoft’s Australia and New Zealand Sales Manager, I am thrilled to be part of the formal welcome address and be host to our existing and future customers from across Australia and New Zealand, who will make the trip to Sydney in August for the 2012 Skillsoft Perspectives Australia Conference.

The Perspectives conference is like no other in Australia. Our two-day event brings together the crème de la crème of learning experts in our region who share their knowledge with our delegates.

Having attended the U.S. Perspectives event in May in Orlando, Florida, I’ve had a taste for what our customers can expect and there is so much to look forward to.

This two-day event will be the largest Perspectives event the region has seen so far. I’m excited by our keynote speaker, Sue Langley – CEO Emotional Intelligence worldwide and her topic Transforming Culture by Leading with Innovation and Fostering Creativity. This year’s theme – Motivate, Innovate, Learn: Driving value through learning will undoubtedly resonate and will generate great discussions and insightful takeaways. I’m thrilled by the calibre of speakers this year and the topic of the workshop on Day 2.

July 20, 2012

Skillsoft customer the Odawa Casino Resort needed to ensure that learning opportunities were available to all employees, not simply those who worked first shift. Odawa also wanted to support performance management through relevant learning options. To fulfill that need, Odawa Casino chose a Skillsoft Select package containing a blend of courses on leadership development, performance management, communication skills, customer service and more. By utilizing the Skillport® LMS, Odawa employees could access learning regardless whether it was day or night.

In the program’s first year, Odawa was able to develop consistency in leadership and improve performance across all areas of the organization.

July 19, 2012

At the 2012 Skillsoft Perspectives conference, we unveiled an advanced look at our upcoming Skillport® 8 release. Skillport 8 brings together all formats of learning content, integrating books, courses and videos in the same library, giving the user a single, seamless experience. To support users on-the-go, Skillport 8 is cross-platform and cross-device – it works as well on a tablet as on a desktop. Many customers asked how we arrived at such a dramatic (and effective) design. There’s a story there and we’re pleased to share it.

Early on, the team went back to basics to ask ourselves just what is Skillport’s “role” in the customer relationship? Is Skillport why they do business with Skillsoft in the first place? After much discussion, we arrived at the collective realization that though Skillport was our own passion (because we work on it every day), it is really more of a supporting player to most of our customers. For them, Skillsoft contentis the driving force behind the business relationship, with Skillsoft’s service and experience sealing the deal.

Reflecting further, we realized that while the various features and functions of an LMS are important, it is the optimization of the user experience with the content that’s key. It doesn’t matter whether we’re talking about Skillsoft content or an organization’s proprietary content. By focusing on the content, we’ve designed Skillport to be a richer total user experience. The visual design features a more streamlined look to allow the content to be the focus. The navigation and actions are readily apparent and intuitive because of the use of established standards and consistency within the application. Our team took the latest web design principles into consideration for Skillport 8. With mobile on the brain, we made sure it would be suitable on a tablet by optimizing it for a gestural interface.

July 17, 2012

Some of the most commonly asked queries in our field include, “What should I report up to executives?” “What metrics are important to L&D?” and equally present is the question, “How does our L&D performance compare to others?”

Answers did not come easily until recently. An advisory board comprised of award winning CLO’s and a consortium of industry experts have joined forces to establish reporting guidance for our field. Whew!

Just as the accounting profession established a consistent set of clear definitions and reporting practices in GAAP, so has L&D. The emerging standard is referred to as the “Talent Development Reporting Principles” or TDRP. The data produced using these principles provides a solid foundation for analysis, just as the data produced by accountants according to GAAP provides the foundation for financial analysis.

July 13, 2012

A recent McKinsey Global Institute study titled “Big data: The next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity” defines Big Data as “datasets whose size is beyond the ability of typical database software tools to capture, store, manage, and analyze.” Big Analytics is the process of analyzing Big Data to derive value for the business. Both of these topics are latest hot topics for analysts covering technology – and many of them point out a severe lack of talent to address Big Data and Big Analytics.

So what’s the big deal about Big Data and Big Analytics? All successful organizations collect lots of data – about customers, purchases, manufacturing, supply chain, employees, their web sites, etc. Much of the data that has been collected is just sitting somewhere waiting for someone to decide if it may have value to the organization or to decide that the data is of little or no value. Big Data and Big Analytics have been successfully employed in both the private and public sector to use the data to derive business value. Organizations that have invested in analyzing their Big Data repositories have often discovered information or trends that have a profound impact on the future direction of their organization.

The push towards Big Data and Big Analytics fuels an organization’s need for advanced technology-based analytics tools as well as top analytical talent to perform analysis of the data. Further, analysts point to a need to build an internal analytical culture, and they claim that despite early successes, analytics are not integral to decision-making processes in most organizations.

July 12, 2012

Justina Phoon is Skillsoft’s Asia Pacific Marketing Communications Manager. She will be sharing updates on 2012 Skillsoft Perspectives Australia throughout the next few months. Stay tuned!

By Justina Phoon

Our annual Perspectives Australia event in Sydney will happen in just about six weeks, but there’s nothing typical about this year’s event! We will be extending Perspectives Australia over 2 days (15 and 16 August) and have lined up a fantastic keynote speaker and other great speakers focused on key topics that will provide you with valuable takeaways and insight into their own learning success stories.

Keynote

We’re pleased to announce Sue Langley, CEO of Emotional Intelligence Worldwide, as our keynote speaker. She will give the keynote presentation: Transforming Culture by Leading with Innovation and Fostering Creativity.Find out more about Sue and watch a clip of her interview with the Leadership Development Channel™.